Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
~George Santayana

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This Memorial Wall is our tributes to those who have died as a result of child abuse, domestic violence, rape, religious abuse, or other types of abuse. Some of these people we knew personally, others we only heard of. Abuse is not a theoretical concept, it happens to real people, and costs lives. It's important to honor those we lost to abuse by telling their stories, so that the secret that killed them does not remain secret, and so that other lives might be saved, as a result of increased awareness.Add an entry

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25yo Abida from Pakistan was a student of MA in English at Faisalabad Government College University, a gold medalist and scholarship holder. "During her educational career," her parents said, "she got a laptop through the Chief Minister Scheme and Quaid-e-Azam Scholarship." Abida was kidnapped when she was returning home from the university, raped, strangled to death, and dumped in a nearby canal. "My sister cannot come back but we are raising our voice for we don't want other girls to go through the same," Abida's brother said at her funeral.

1yo Shaylyn from Indiana, USA, was raped and murdered by a friend of her dad. He came over for a night of drinking, took Shaylyn from her bed, and drove to a rural area where he assaulted and killed her. A medical examiner called the trauma to Shaylyn's body the "worst case of sexual trauma" she had seen in her career. "When I heard all the horrible things he did to my precious girl I wanted to die too," said Shaylyn's dad.

Sandra was an 8yo girl who lived with her mom, grandparents, and three older siblings in a Mobile Home park in California. She was raped and murdered by her mentally ill neighbor, Melissa Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher and a mother of Sadra's playmate.

Oksana was a girl from Ukraine whose both parents were convicted of various felonies, including drug-related ones. When Oksana was little, her mom was incarcerated for armed robbery, and Oksana went to live with her grandparents. When she was in third grade, grandparents sent her to an orphanage. She tried to run away multiple times, but was caught. When Oksana was 10, her mom was released from prison, and took the girl home. Mom's boyfriend molested Oksana, mom moved to another town, and the girl was practically homeless. She only completed 6th grade, and there was a police report about her engaging in prostitution.

On March 8th (International Women's Day in Ukraine), 18yo Oksana was at a local bar. Her drink was spiked, three guys took her to their place, raped and strangled her, set her on fire, and left her for dead. She was found the next morning, taken to a hospital, and died three weeks later of burns, gangrene, pneumonia, sepsis, multiple organ failure, brain edema, and undernourishment.

20yo Holly from Tennessee, USA, studied nursing at the University of Tennessee, sang in her church choir, and loved animals. Holly was living with her parents and brother. In the morning of April 13th Holly was studying for an exam, her parents were at work, and her brother was asleep. Around 7:40AM neighbors heard her screaming, and her brother saw her arguing in the carport with a man (whom he mistook for Holly's boyfriend at first), and eventually leaving with him. Holly's body wasn't found till September 2014. Six man have been implicated, three were charged with aggravated kidnapping, murder, and rape, two were sentenced.

11yo Ashlynne from Navajo Nation, USA, was playing with her 9yo brother Ian near their bus stop after school, when a stranger lured them into his van. He drove them to a remote location, and then left Ian in the van and walked away with Ashlynne. After a while he returned to the van alone. Ian realized that his sister was hurt, ran off, and alerted adults. Ashlynne's body was found the next day; she was raped and beaten to death with a crowbar. 1,600 people attended her funeral. Press release from the presidents office included the following statement: "Since the death of our daughter, the Navajo Nation has worked diligently to establish an Amber Alert and 911 system."

According to the official version of events, two 14yo girls, Zhao and Sung, middle school students from China, voluntarily attended a party that consisted of adult men only, had sex with those men, and then committed suicide. According to the girls' relatives, however, the girls were kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Zhao's father said, "There are a dozen men in this town who are known to rob and rape. The kids are scared of them. These hoodlums would beat those who refuse to do what they want. They raped many girls in the middle school, at least 30. The girls and their parents would not speak up out of fear. People in the surrounding villages are scared of them, too, and try to avoid them. Leader Qu Tao celebrated his birthday and detained the two girls in his apartment. When we went looking for our daughter, three of them armed with screwdrivers tried to stop us from entering. I saw from outside through the apartment windows that the girls were fine. When we eventually got into the apartment they had already drunk the pesticide. Those men killed them to shut them up." Sung's sister added, "Local officials have not given us a reasonable answer. We went to the school trying to understand what happened. The people from school would not let us in and beat us. The coroner's examination revealed the girls’ hymens had been ruptured. We tried to hire a lawyer. They told us they would not take our case because whoever takes the case would lose his job."

18yo Vidhya from Sri Lanka attended school 2km from home and loved animals. "We reared the livestock," her mom said, "the goat, the cow and the chickens for eggs and milk but Vidhya always treated them like personal friends. I often scolded her over it because she was always cuddling them and getting her white uniform dirty. She would cuddle them before going to school and then cuddle them as soon as she returned from school too. It used to annoy me no end but now all those memories are so bitter-sweet to us. It is who she was. If I ever scolded her for talking to dumb animals as equals, she would say, ‘Amma they are not dumb animals. They are intelligent sentient beings without a voice. We have to be extra kind to them.'"

At 7:25AM on May 13th, 2015, Vidhya was riding her bike to school, when she was kidnapped and raped to death by four adults in their 30s and 40s and five youths. Apparently the adults had a grudge with Vidhya's family. "Last year," explained her mom, "I had happened to notice one of the houses of my relatives abroad, who kept their house locked up, with its gates wide open. I informed my relative of this, she in turn informed the local police from abroad and they had happened to catch some people on their own. I had nothing to do with it and I don’t think it has any implication in my daughter's rape and murder." "What may I ask is wrong with my mother’s action?" added Vidhya's brother. "People keep blaming us for it as if Vidhya's fate would have been spared but for this incident. We don't think so. This island suffers under too much a climate of crime along with too much a climate of fear of exposing the criminals. That is why incidents like these happen again and again."

16yo Mahmoud from Australia aspired to own his own construction company and play professionally for the Bulldogs. He spent the day of May 16th working with his uncle, and had asked permission from his father to ride his bicycle to get dinner. At 6:22PM he was at a local fast food restaurant with someone he considered a friend. At 9:42PM Mahmoud spoke on the phone with his mom. "Where are you? Come home!" she said. "It's OK Mum, I'm with my friend... I've got my bike... I will come home," Mahmoud replied. His "friend" was a 24yo drug dealer with a violent criminal history who was released on bail on the condition that he reported to the local police station every day of the week and could not leave home unless in the company of his father. This man lured Mahmoud into a vacant property used by local youth as a hangout, raped him, and bashed him to death with a toaster.

8yo Obaida lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with his mom, dad, and two younger sisters. The family was originally from Jordan. Obaida attended the second grade, and was a smart kid, according to friends and relatives; he would always give directions to taxi drivers while returning home with his mother from mall visits. The family lived on the fourth floor, above Obaida's dad car repair shop. In the beginning of May, a new customer, also Jordanian, came to the shop to have his car repaired. "We don't know him," said Obaida's mom. "I did not feel comfortable about this man from the beginning." The man was friendly with Obaida, who spent a lot of time in his dad's shop, allowed the boy to watch cartoons in his car sometimes, and offered to buy him a scooter. In the afternoon of May 31st Obaida left the house to join his father in the workshop. He went down the stairs, but never arrived to the workshop. The parents only realized he was missing at 9:30PM, when the father closed the workshop and returned home. Obaida was kidnapped by that customer, who sexually assaulted him and then strangled him with a red ghutrah (traditional Arab headdress) when the boy tried to resist. Obaida's body was found two days later, 14 miles away. The man tried to use the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and alcoholism for insanity plea, but was sentenced to death and executed.